Review of some diseases of dairy animals and treatment by ethno-veterinary medicines

Abstract

In the rural areas of India, ruminants (goats, sheep, cows and buffaloes) are reared mainly to obtain milk and meat, used as soil manures and are a source of dung useful as fuel and organic fertilizer. These livestock are more prone to different contagious diseases, especially in a sub-tropical country like India. There are many allopathic medicines used to treat dairy animal diseases but their cost happens to be high with side effects sometimes. Due to the high cost of medicines, poor people cannot afford them. Based on interactions with traditional medicine practitioners, it has been observed that more than three dozen medicinal plants are used to cure various diseases such as mastitis, foot and mouth disease, blue tongue, Johne’s disease, lesions, rinderpest, piglet diarrhea or scour, bovine, rhinotracheitis, theileriosis, tetanus, bovine babesiosis, listeriosis as well as the signs of enteritis, arthritis, stomatitis, salivation from the mouth, wounding, conjunctivitis, viral infections etc., in animals. The viral infections wreak havoc on the economy of animal farmers. Viral infections are not a new disease of animals but new viruses are spreading worldwide including in Asian countries very fast, these days. A vaccination program is being launched in India to protect animals from such diseases. Among ethnomedicinal plants, leaves are the major part used (42%), followed by the whole plant, fruit (10%), and rhizome, stem, seed (8%), tuber, latex (4%) and gum, bark, petiole constituting to 2%.

Keywords: Ethnomedicine, medicinal plants, folklore medicine, ethnoveterinary, veterinary diseases, livestock.

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